MP launches petition tosave Penrith post office

MORE than 1,000 people have so far signed a petition launched by Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart against plans to relocate Penrith post office.

Post Office management is proposing to move its Penrith operation from a stand-alone site in Crown Square to the WHSmith shop in Angel Square.

Mr Stewart declared himself opposed to the plans when they were announced. He met with Post Office representatives on Friday to voice the community’s concerns. After this meeting, he launched a petition to save the post office, which, since going live, has received more than 1,100 signatures.

“I would like to urge everybody who uses the post office to submit a response to the inquiry and, if they agree with me that the loss of our Penrith branch would be unacceptable, to sign my petition,” said Mr Stewart.

“My team and I will be circulating physical petitions around Penrith, and there is also an online petition that can be found at https://www.change.org/p/richard-hall-save-penrith-post-office or by Googling ‘Save Penrith Post Office’.

“I’m hopeful that, by demonstrating the strength of local feeling on this issue, we will be able to make the Post Office management think again. I’d like to thank everybody who has signed, so far, and encourage everybody else to do so. Our post offices are far too precious to lose.”

Eden Council will be submitting a response as part of the consultation. Leader Kevin Beaty (Con, Skelton) said: “There is a period of public consultation on the proposals regarding the Penrith post office, which closes on 13th March, 2019.

“Within this time frame I will be considering an appropriate response to be made on behalf of the council at a leader portfolio meeting.”

The consultation document states that the new branch would have longer opening hours and a wide range of services would still be available, with the exception of application enrolment identification. It is proposed that the post office would be located at the rear of the WHSmith store.